AUN – Fiat Lux

Since 2007, AUN has been the magical work of two Canadians Martin Dumais and Julie Leblanc, whom use various instruments such as electric guitars and theremin besides their vast array of electronic tools to create their audial trips of Industrial and Ambient nature. Although they have an admirable discography, this is the first release I hear from them.

Most of the sounds of “Fiat Lux” are surprisingly clear, well produced, and of high quality, with the various textures of the numerous layers of audio visible and touchable in your mind, making the album a very cool and pleasantly complex trip. Every beat-like click, bleep, thud and thump is tangibly upscale, in a high-quality (kinda nineties) IDM-way, while the more noisy and grainy aspects of Ambience sound nicely thick here or thin there, making them something to really concentrate on as well. Some spoken and sung parts add to the cinematic soundtrack-like feeling of the music.

Just like in the case of Future Sound Of London’s classic “Dead Cities” (in the nineties), many songs of this album drag me into the abandoned streets and buildings of some city of the future, with post-apocalyptic mist and smoke drifting past the still-blinking neon sings with none there to see them except me. The atmospheres of the songs are usually more beautifully melancholic and intriguing in that Blade Runner way, rather than depressive, anxious or scary.

These songs have apparently been worked live as well as in the studio, and refined at a later date, making this a very polished and well-thought collection of feelings. There is definitely a feeling of a live-performance in the music, most likely having to do with the fact these individuals have been performing live over 150 times during the years. This quality release shows once again the awesome power and magic of the Cyclic Law catalogue, appealing mos def to all fans of quality IDM and Ambient. If I would be writing this in the nineties, I couldn’t wait to smoke a joint before bed-time and put this on. Well, why not do it today as well.